So why was Mitt Romney’s first foreign speech so Israel heavy?
Our brief is here, and here’s the full speech at the Wall Street Journal.
Yes, yes, yes, "the lobby," pandering, donors, snooooooze.
I think Marc Tracy at Tablet has it exactly right: In the absence of a coherent foreign policy, Israel makes sense as an issue because it is where Obama is vulnerable. It also dovetails with the Republican consensus (in a primaries race shockingly lacking in consensus) that the best way to defeat Obama is on "values":
Iran/Israel works best as an attack on President Obama for two reasons: first, it’s virtually the only specific foreign policy issue where he is even vulnerable; and, second, because Americans rightly identify with Israelis, Israel can be framed as an attack on Obama’s values rather than his foreign policy record. The top soundbite from Romney’s speech is: “I will not surrender America’s role in the world. This is very simple: If you do not want America to be the strongest nation on Earth, I am not your President. You have that President today.”
Other than the Israel-Iran component, and a nod to the Navy, Romney’s speech is singularly vague. Romney will "speak with our generals" on Afghanistan? Really? As opposed to pantomime? "The president is … is…. trapped in a transparent cage! He’s … he’s unzipping the cage! He’s breaking through! He wants a breakthrough in Afghanistan, he wants trasnparency, but what on earth does the zipper signify?"
Okay, I’m having fun, and to be fair to Romney, it’s true that 13 months short of voting it’s hard to be coherent on foreign policy.
But it’s clear that the Middle East will be front and center once a frontrunner emerges.
For further proof, check out Romney’s foreign policy adviser team, announced yesterday. Beyond playing "count the pro-Israel types" check out how Middle East-heavy it is. It’s not just a matter of the obvious names that will ring those AIPAC bells (Norm Coleman, Dan Senor, Robert Kagan), but the less obvious ones as well (Meghan O’Sullivan) and the Middle East hands who pop up in other areas (Eric Edelman, Stephen Rademaker in counter-proliferation, Roger Zakheim in defense, Eliot Cohen and Dov Zakheim generally.)
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